The Stream of Time
It’s 6:20 AM and I’m watching these kids watch the sunrise on Labor Day weekend at East Harbor. It’s a study in youth: impulsive, silly and random comments, talking over one other, emotional outbursts, and so absorbing! It’s a study in Venus and Mars: diffuse guys, active, energetic, guitar-heroes framed against the horizon, boasting, theatrical (supposing the girls are watching). The girls clump, sit, oblivious, and twitter.
Sweet spontaneity, soon all gone! Adulthood looms in the stream of time.
What I now remember and think of is Scot’s death, my young brother. The sky is on fire with sunrise colors, far too glorious to bear, and the music playing was from his tribute.
Where is the beauty of Scot now? Does he shine with the glory of the sunrise?
What magic this morning is! I can see, I think, the way Jesus sees it when his children come together in the spiritual realm called the Body of Christ. This is the gathering of shared presence, when “the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” (Col.2:19)
It affects change, even without deliberate effort, in the same way our own bodies distribute life. It’s impossible to predict the effects, but they will be good effects because the spiritual stuff of shared presence always leaves a deep, intangible mark in the stream of time.
Anchors of the Soul.
This moment will burrow deep in their hearts as a memory of a time called “friendship” and a moment called “love”. No, not the deep intimacy of marriage or even close friends, yet still it will be an Anchor of the Soul, and it heals even a heart filled with pain. Perhaps this is because there’s so many of them gathered, and they all belong to Jesus and Jesus is here, and they know each other, and they love and delight in each other’s presence. What heart-piercing energy! Found nowhere else on the planet, it is unique to this place in the stream of time.
Scot left many such moments littered in my heart.
Such is the stream of time…
Heh, that actually makes me think back of last year’s camping. I really did hate the ride back, knowing that my old life is just waiting for me and to start it’s old crap again. But while I was there, it was the greatest experience I could ever ask for. Sometimes I still wish I could go back and just live in that weekend for the rest of my life.
Very short and very touching. Thank you.
Yea, it was an awesome time that morning. I’ve never seen the sky shed so many different colors! Last year was not as beautiful as this year’s sunrise. The vibrant flashes and blotches of pink, orange, and yellow… It was truly magnificent in every way. And then having all the people come out to relate under the beautiful sky. It was such an awesome moment. I won’t forget it for a long time…
By the way, that’s not Lauren, that’s Doddette! (Katelyn Dodd)…
very sweet!
Thanks, you guys.
PS: the day ended more beautiful than it began, when this new group reached someone for Jesus Christ… You’ll probably be hearing more about it soon.
I think youwrote this to make me cry…awwwww im at school mannn
Keith,
What a beautiful tribute and a heartwarming reminder to all of us who have lost someone dear that life does go on in all its beauty and chaos for those of us who remain here on earth, knowing our loved one is watching (probably in amusement) and waiting.
Donna
This blog reminds me of some John Mellencamp songs like “Human Wheel” and “Sweet Evening Breeze” since the speaker watches time pass and hopes for meaning in the blur of human history. But it’s so exciting for these kids, and the rest of our fellowship, that we have hope for the future as we build into a Kingdom that endures beyond the transience of time.